


In Mako We Trust

by Raining_inMidgar



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Aerith Gainsborough Lives, Blood and Gore, Death, I Will Update Tags and Characters as I Write, I Wrote This in an Hour While Sitting on the Kitchen Counter and Chain Smoking out the Window, I’m Super Bad at Summaries I’m so Sorry, I’m Writing and Publishing on Mobile so if it Sucks I’m Also Sorry, Panic Attacks, SOLDIER - Freeform, Some Seriously Effed Up Imagery, Zack Fair & Cloud Strife Friendship, Zack Fair Lives, Zack POV, medical treatments, mostly - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-04
Updated: 2019-06-04
Packaged: 2020-04-07 15:32:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19087900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raining_inMidgar/pseuds/Raining_inMidgar
Summary: Cloud has finally passed the SOLDIER exams, with the help of his best friend, Zack. But Cloud and Mako have never mixed, and Zack learns the hard way that sometimes, nothing goes as planned.





	In Mako We Trust

**Author's Note:**

> Hello. Thanks for stopping in. This is my first work here as Rain. Questions, comments, criticisms are highly encouraged. I hope you enjoy this first chapter of my multi-chaptered shit storm. It’s super incomplete, but I was oddly enraptured in my own writing, so I figured I would post in hopes of some feedback. PS. Crisis Core is not canon here. I honestly don’t know where it sits in the timeline. I’m a mess:))))  
> Xoxo

“First Class Lieutenant Fair?” The nurse addressed him. “You’re here for Third Class Private Cloud Strife?” 

“I am.” Zack said, voice monotone. The look on her face made his stomach churn. 

“Come this way, please.” She held the door open for him, and he followed her through, and into a sterile white room. She closed the door behind him and stopped, looking down at her clipboard with rapt attention. She didn’t look up when she spoke next. 

“Unfortunately, Third Class Strife’s mako injections did not go as planned.” She kept her eyes trained on the clipboard. “His body reacted... negatively...” 

Zack narrowed his eyes. “He’s... okay, though? His past mako test was normal. He came back completely fine.” 

“There were... unforeseen complications.” She finally met his eyes, and Zack felt like he was going to puke. 

Unforeseen complications. 

“His body completely rejected the transfusion. We did everything we could...” 

“Is he...?” Zack couldn’t bring himself to say it. 

“No. Not yet. He is being prepared to be sent down to Hojo’s lab for humane euthanasia and an autopsy. It is confusing to us as well why his body suddenly reacted this way. We wish to prevent such tragedy in the future. I’m very sorry, sir.”

Zack’s vision was suddenly swimming. He felt like all of the air was being squeezed from his lungs, and he couldn’t catch his breath. A lump was thick in his throat, and he couldn’t swallow it down. 

“He is still up here, if you wish to see him.” 

“Y-yeah. Yeah, I need to see him. Just.... I need a minute. Need to make a call.” 

“I understand. Take your time.” The nurse stepped out of the room and closed the door quietly behind her. 

Zack pulled his cellphone out, dialling a number that was engrained in his muscle memory. 

‘Zack. What can I do for you? How is Cloud?’ Angeal answered the phone after only a few rings. 

The room was spinning, and he doubted he could trust his voice. 

“Angeal, I need you down here. Please.” It held for longer than he thought, but it cracked on the “please”. 

‘I’ll be right there. You’re in the soldier lab? Do you need me to stay on the phone? I’ll be five minutes.” He said, his voice suddenly soft. 

“Yes.” Zack couldn’t hold it back anymore. He sobbed into the phone. A loud, choked sob. 

He suddenly felt like he was falling off the edge of the world, head first, tumbling into oblivion. Hands grasped at him, pulling him down, down, too fast. The room spun faster, the thick sobs making him gag. Hot tears tore bloody scars down his face. Cracks, splinters carved in his cheeks. His heart was trying to claw its way out of his body. His breath came in short, sharp gasps, needing more air but ever starving, suffocating. The room pressed in quickly, quickly, so quickly. It was going to crush him. He was trapped. He wanted his mother, he wanted Cloud. He called for Cloud. Cloud didn’t come. Cloud would never come. 

“Cloud.”

Heavy hands landed on his shoulders and reality came back like a rushing train. 

“Zack. Breathe.” He was pulled into steady arms, a familiar scent wreathing around him like a torrential gale. “Breathe with me. Feel me breathing.” One breath. Two breaths. He squeezed his eyes tightly. Three breaths. 

He blinked them open and looked up into his mentor’s face. He felt like a child. He was so scared. 

“He’s gonna- He’s gonna die, Ang. He’s dying.” Zack choked into Angeal’s soaked shirt. “The mako didn’t- it didn’t take. His body is shutting down. They can’t stop it. They can’t do anything.” 

Angeal shushed him softly. He petted Zack’s long hair with a gentleness that he had never displayed. 

“I don’t know what to do.” Zack had never been so afraid. Never been so afraid of monsters under his bed. Never been so afraid of monsters right in front of him. He was faced with his biggest fear. He was going to lose his best friend. His brother. His Cloud. 

“Do you want me to take you to him?” Angeal asked, his voice barely more than a whisper. 

“Yeah... Gotta see my Spike. Don’t want him to be scared too.” A moment of clarity only to ease Cloud’s pain

He pushed off of Angeal and took a deep breath that he hadn’t expected to come. He sniffled and wiped his nose on the back of his hand. He had to be strong for Cloud.

“Let’s find the nurse.” Angeal kept an arm around his shoulders and steered him out the door. The nurse came around the corner immediately. 

“Are you ready?” She asked. 

Zack just nodded.

“I would like to let you know first that he is in a lot of pain. We have him heavily sedated, but the mako is burning it off almost as fast as we can administer more. It’s rapidly replacing the blood in his body. He might not be very coherent, but he will know you’re there.” She led them down the hall. Down, down the hall. It felt like a million miles. Time was slow, and he stayed pressed tightly to Angeal’s side, focussing on his heart beating and his breathing. 

They stopped. 

“He’s in this room. Take all the time you need.”

Zack nodded mechanically. He barely registered her leave again. 

Angeal turned Zack around, placing both his hands on his shoulders. 

“I’ll be out here if you need me.” Then he pulled Zack into a gentle hug. 

It took him a moment to breathe, to steel himself, and he reached for the door. 

He quietly entered the room. It was dark and silent, except for the rapid beeping of the heart monitor, and Cloud’s shallow breaths. His eyes were closed, and his face was grey and drawn. His arms were laid flat on top of the blankets, decorated with multiple IV catheters feeding sedatives into his veins, and wrapped in soft, white bandages. Zack settled himself in a chair by the bed, and the squeak of the old leather seemed to rouse Cloud. He blinked open his eyes and blearily turned his head toward Zack. Zack swallowed hard at the bright mako glow. 

“Zack.” Cloud’s voice was barely more than a gurgling whisper. 

“Hey Spike.” Zack spoke in a gentle, albeit strained, tone, reaching out to take Cloud’s hand in his own. It was freezing. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired...” Cloud trailed off, his eyelids drooping. He squeezed Zack’s hand feebly. “‘M sorry, Zack... I made SOLDIER, but failed again.”

“Hush, Cloud. Don’t you go blaming yourself. None of this was your fault.” Zack squeezed back, his face hardening. 

“Please... tell my mother. Tell her I was a hero... don’t tell her I failed.” 

Cloud’s eyebrows knitted together and he sighed softly. His head lolled limply into the pillow, eyes sliding closed. 

“It hurts... so much. Everything’s so... bright. And loud. I’ve never... hurt... so much...” He coughed hard, rattling his whole body. “Zack... I’m gonna-“ He cut off and jerked forward violently. He vomited dark red blood and chunks of tissue, swirling with green mako. He heaved again and again, the spew of his liquefied guts never ending. Then he flopped back onto the pillow with a wet gurgle. Blood dripped down his chin. The gory mess soaked into the white sheets. 

“Don’ wanna die yet.” Cloud spoke so softly that Zack wasn’t sure he actually said a word. “Not ready.” 

Zack blinked quickly, but the tears were faster, spilling over and falling in ribbons down his cheeks. 

“I’m not ready for you to go yet either.” He sobbed. He threw himself at Cloud, gathering his friend in an embrace that was so tight that just maybe it would hold them both together. 

Everything was surreal. The world spun and faded in and out around him. Cloud was the only constant. Cloud was his anchor in the sea that threatened to carry him away.

The anchor was suddenly cut. 

The heart monitor screamed a single tone at him. Cloud was limp in his arms. Zack pulled back, arms still wrapped around Cloud. 

“Cloud?” His eyes were completely mako green. Filled to the brim with it. They looked ready to burst. Blood was squeezing out around them, looking like tears. 

“Cloud?!” He shook the limp body with more vigour than he intended. The head rolled back. The mouth gaping in a silent scream. Wide eyes glowed. It wasn’t his Spike anymore. It was an empty husk, quickly decomposing in his hands. The bulging eyes exploded in blood and mako, covering him. 

He dropped it and ran from the room, so fast he felt the door fly off the hinges. He hadn’t even turned the handle, but instead crashed through it with a speed even his enhanced mind didn’t register. His ears were buzzing loudly. He couldn’t even think. He crashed into a warm, living body, and lost consciousness. 

............

He blinked awake with a terrified cry. He sat up so fast his head spun and his sight was clouded with green. He was in his own bed. In his own room. 

It was just a dream. 

Wasn’t it?

Just a dream. 

The door to his room swung open, and light poured in. 

He saw the mako tinged blood caked under his fingernails, and passed out again.


End file.
